From the catastrophic meteor shower in "Armageddon" to the city-swallowing fire in "Independence Day," destroying New York is good for business for any Hollywood blockbuster.
Now in theaters and causing considerable colossal damage to New York is Joss Whedon's "The Avengers," an epic film based on the popular Marvel Comics superhero team that includes the likes of the Hulk and Captain America beating up Chitauri aliens.
The NYPD may have touted their ability to take down a plane, but we're quite positive if an "Avengers"-like destruction scenario were to truly take place, we'd be toast. And if we survived, we'd be left with an economic nightmare.
With the help of disaster estimation experts at Kinetic Analysis Corp, The Hollywood Reporter dug into the numbers to find how much "The Avengers'" climatic battle scene would actually cost NYC:
In an exclusive report for THR, KAC, led by Chuck Watson and Sara Jupin, employed computer models used for predicting the destruction of nuclear weapons and concluded that the physical damage of the invasion would be $60 billion-$70 billion, with economic and cleanup costs hitting $90 billion. Add on the loss of thousands of lives, and KAC puts the overall price tag at $160 billion.
For context, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks cost $83 billion, Hurricane Katrina cost $90 billion, and the tsunami in Japan last year washed away $122 billion.
Head over to THR to read more frightening numbers.
Watch a preview for the film below: